Sep 26, 2005

草千里ーAso-san

Hundreds of years ago.t he Aso plain is a piece of fertile land yet ironically unsuitable for paddy cultivation (Japanese staple food)

Farmers have long found the solution to this problem : They raised cows and collected their dungs, and mixed it with the soil. Soon, they did not only enjoy the first harvest, but also the supplement of milks and beef from their cattles.

Yet, again another problem arised!
They could no longer feed their multiplying herds with limited grazing ground.

And, a smart race as we know, they begin clearing the forest for grazing fields. Wood from the forest is used to make houses and furniture as well
Once in a year, grazing fields will be burned to create a new layer of fertile soil for new grazing field. ( the burning of grazing field is still being practised ! , and is celebrated as a festival , Matsuri )

Now, depends on the season, you will either see miles of grazing fields, or burned field at the mountain side and paddy fields down at the valley.. and of course cows and dungs.


A foggy morning, outside the Aso-san Youth Hostel.


A long winding road up to Aso-san


Grazing field

Can you see the volcanic fault or fissures on the mountain ?


Collecting grass


The famous, symmetrical shape mountain that looks like a rice mould.
In Japanese it is called Kome-zuke, meaning the rice-mould.


Another famous spot, Kusa-senri, or the "The Thousand miles of Field"
The presence of 2 volcanic mirror- like lakes makes this place such a scenic spot. !
Really breath-taking. Reminding me of the famous fight scene in the movie "Hero"




12 comments:

problogger said...

Famous scene in "Hero"? :-)

BTW, r u using any msn messenger or Yahoo Messenger? Can chat more easily..

cmail me ok

Sep 27, 2005, 4:01:00 AM  
Eddie said...

Can you introduce yourself?

Sep 27, 2005, 4:46:00 AM  
problogger said...

Aiya, from Nagoya la.. we had 3000 yen lunch together.. remember?

Sep 27, 2005, 5:22:00 PM  
The Furui Man said...

You got a fan there Eddie!!!
Very nice photos!!! (UN)lucky me, I spent whole summer in scenic Kyoto...

Sep 27, 2005, 6:54:00 PM  
Patrick Leong said...

furui man : kyoto is not too bad what ?!? aso ? beppu ? imagine when you have to withstand eddie's blabbering mouth for some 5 consecutive days. that's a bit of a torture ! aso is nice. worth going.

Sep 28, 2005, 5:24:00 PM  
The Furui Man said...

Now you mention that Patrick, I'm glad I stayed here!

Sep 28, 2005, 6:47:00 PM  
Giancarlo said...

Hahaha!
That was funny, Furui!

Good pictures Eddie, although some of them look too artificial.. Do you still have the auto-correct feature on? Nevertheless love the first one... I'm a dark guy: love the mist...

Sep 30, 2005, 6:51:00 PM  
Anonymous said...

Hahaha....somehow the image of Giancarlo being a "dark guy" is funny! Sorry!

Yup, the pics are all beautiful!
AL

Oct 3, 2005, 8:08:00 AM  
Eddie said...

thanks ai ling..
Giancarlo : all pictures are auto-adjusted with iPhoto because it was hazy at site.

Oct 4, 2005, 12:49:00 AM  
Anonymous said...

Btw, why use auto-adjust? Why don't you adjust by yourself so that you have more control...which is better I think. Then you can get the desired effect or something that does not look too artificial.

AL

Oct 10, 2005, 8:23:00 AM  
zbjernak said...

the winding road on the hill is awesome...

the reflection is superb..

cool shots...

Oct 10, 2005, 5:45:00 PM  
Eddie said...

Al : i am lazy to manually adjust the pic.. i am satisfied with the auto-adjust. Anyway, the real place is picturesque !

Zbjernak : thank you for the compliments

Oct 11, 2005, 5:48:00 AM  

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